Shakespeare - Compressed, twisted and bedazzled

Laurence Olivier's Hamlet runs 157 minutes. The Franco Zeffirelli version of Romeo and Juliet clocks in at around 138 min. The Reduced Shakespeare Company's Complete Works of William Shakespeare - Abridged [2]reduces these two plays and all of the rest of the Shakespeare plays in total down to a mere 90 minutes and they don't miss a single play. "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - Abridged[2]" is a fast moving comedic look at Shakespeare that leaves almost no arrow unlaunched. The cast consists of Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Windfield who are the founding members of the Reduced Shakespeare Company.

The show cannot be described; only experienced. It starts with a brief history of Shakespeare from his younger days and touches briefly on his marriage to Eva Braun, his invasion of Poland (you'll understand what that means when you see the play) and then quickly moves on to their production of Romeo and Juliet which they perform with only two cast members. I won't spoil the show for you but I will say that it is a show that varied quite a bit each time it was performed. If you like Shakespeare and sketch comedy then you'll most likely enjoy "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare – abridged[2]."